What a hōtō is
A hōtō is a single-storey Buddhist monument consisting of a cylindrical body with a square roof, or kasa, and a finial spire on top. Most are of stone, and in the medieval period they were set up widely as memorials and grave markers. The form recalls the scene in the Lotus Sutra where the jewelled stupa of the Buddha Prabhutaratna rises from the earth, and it is bound up with devotion to that sutra.
Studies of stone hōtō report bodies with a cylindrical shaft rounded into a dome at the top, carved in shallow relief with posts and doors to suggest a hall. The timber Tahōtō is explained as keeping the hōtō form in its upper storey and adding a square lower storey. The stone Hōkyōintō differs in having a square body and corner horns on its roof.
Reading the records and the monument
Records give material and form, as a stone hōtō, with any attachments. The hōtō of Goryu Sonryuin in Kurashiki, Okayama, is recorded as a stone hōtō with a platform and is an Important Cultural Property of the early Kamakura period.
In later periods forms degenerated or mixed with other types of stone monument. The commentary on stone hōkyōintō designated by Mizumaki, Fukuoka, describes one Edo-period example as a debased hōkyōintō with features of a hōtō. On site, checking whether the body is cylindrical or square and whether the roof has corner horns helps tell a hōtō from a hōkyōintō.
References
- 五流尊滝院宝塔｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/3007
- 斎藤彦司「神奈川県下の石造宝塔について」｜全国遺跡報告総覧
- https://sitereports.nabunken.go.jp/en/article/24403/pdf_page
- 石造宝篋印塔（水巻町指定）｜文化遺産オンライン
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/580316
Last verified: 2026.09.26